Tool Cabinet Handles

A while ago, Adrienne and I bought this great big tool cabinet from Harbor Freight. It’s been super useful. The one problem is, the only space we have for it is in the living room. It clashes with our otherwise old-timey decor. How to make this beast play well with others? Replace the ugly square silver handles with handmade leather drawer pulls.

I started off with a design on paper. The middle part will either fold over or get sewn in the round.

I traced the pattern onto some stiff plastic, to make a cutting template.

Here’s the completed template, cut out with scissors.

I’m going to test the template out with some scrap leather, a similar weight to what we’re using on the final product.

Sewing leather isn’t like sewing fabric. You need to make all your holes in advance. To start with, you use a divider to score a line where the stitch will run.

Next, use the divider to mark out where the holes will go, This ensures an even stitch. Some people also use a marking wheel (like a little spur on a stick) for this purpose.

Once the stitch holes are marked, you punch them out with an awl. Unless you’re a hardcore saddler, then you only punch each hole just before you sew it. I’m not a hardcore saddler.

We decided that a round handle would be better than folding the leather over. Waxed thread and a curved needle are just the ticket for this job.

To give the handle some body, I’m improvising dowels from take-out chopsticks.

Marking the length on the stick.

I punched holes at either end for the drawer screws.

Here’s the prototype handle in-situ. I grabbed some bolts to test it out.

Functionally, the handle works just fine.

Testing it out, we both agreed that it sticks out a bit too much, and the middle part can probably be a tad shorter.

Back to the drawing board for prototype #2.

The second template worked out much better. Now it’s on to mass production! We had a pile of leather swatches from a furniture store, including this very nice “Reno Brown”.

It ended up being easier to cut the fleur-de-lys shapes on the end with scissors, as opposed to a hobby blade. If you were mass-producing these, you’d have a clicker die made that would just punch them out in one shot. You could probably do these on a laser cutter, too.

Edges marked, just a bit closer to the edge than on the prototype.

All marked out for punching!

The holes are punched, and it’s time to stitch.

It’s a bit time-consuming, but once you get started, you really get into the swing of it. I did most of these while binge watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with Adrienne.

Big reveal time. Here’s the cabinet with the old handles…

And here it is with the new ones! Looks way better.

I got some brass cap nuts from the hardware store, that fit on the screws that held in the original handles. I wish I could have cut the ends cleaner…but there’s only so much you can do with leather if you don’t have at least commercial-grade tools and machinery. Still, the handles feel good, work well and look sexy. I’m calling this one a win.